head to head · open source
puppeteer vs react-cosmos
puppeteer has 95,591 GitHub stars, 9,579 forks, 259 open issues and last shipped today. react-cosmos has 8,686 stars, 381 forks, 5 open issues and last shipped 20 days ago. puppeteer leads on adoption by 1,001% (95,591 vs 8,686 stars). puppeteer is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; react-cosmos is written in TypeScript under MIT. puppeteer has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, react-cosmos 4%. puppeteer was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (testing), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| puppeteer | react-cosmos | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 96K | ★ 8.7K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-08-31 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.6K | ⑂ 381 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick puppeteer if
- You weight community size — 96K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick react-cosmos if
- You want the react-cosmos feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and react-cosmos fits your workflow better
About puppeteer
Puppeteer is an Apache 2.0 JavaScript and TypeScript library that provides a high level API for driving Chrome and Firefox over the DevTools Protocol or WebDriver BiDi, written for developers who automate browsers from Node.js.
read the full puppeteer overview →
About react-cosmos
React Cosmos is a sandbox for developing and testing UI components in isolation, built for React developers who want to build, render and verify individual components without launching the full application around them.
read the full react-cosmos overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is puppeteer or react-cosmos more popular?
puppeteer has 95,591 GitHub stars and react-cosmos has 8,686. puppeteer has the larger community by that measure.
Are puppeteer and react-cosmos free?
Both are open source. puppeteer is licensed under Apache-2.0 and react-cosmos under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between puppeteer and react-cosmos?
puppeteer is written in TypeScript and react-cosmos in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, puppeteer or react-cosmos?
Choose puppeteer if you want the larger community (95,591 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose react-cosmos if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.